


The Cycle of Ever After

by im_the_king_of_the_ocean



Category: RWBY
Genre: Character Study, Other, Short One Shot, found the beginning in my notebook and decided to flesh out a little more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26891683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_the_king_of_the_ocean/pseuds/im_the_king_of_the_ocean
Summary: Oscar and Salem's brief, first conversation
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	The Cycle of Ever After

“He’s tended to inhabit younger and younger hosts these last few centuries.”

A shiver runs up Oscar’s spine as Salem walks around behind him.It takes all his willpower not to turn around and track her every movement.He has a feeling she’s expecting that.An adamant part of him strongly resists the idea of doing what it is she wants, or expects him, to do.

“Do you know why?”Salem comes to a stop in front of Oscar.She gazes coolly down at him.

He looks right back up to her, hoping his expression is defiant and not as anxious as he’s feeling.

Salem doesn’t scare Oscar.He was surprised to realize that truth when the Grimm that captured him first brought him to her.Looking at Salem doesn’t fill him with dread or fear he’s about to die.He knows she won’t kill him.At least not yet.

All Oscar feels when he looks upon Salem is sadness.Remorse.Regret.That _this_ is what she became.That he loved her once.That he—Ozma—heard of the tale of the Girl in the Tower and decided to save her from her fate.

Ozma as his own person doesn’t exist anymore.Too many centuries of reincarnation and merging a little more with each new life has meant the person as he had been has all but disappeared.Ozma’s memories remain, but it’s Oscar who can remember them now.He’s his own person, Oscar finally has realized.It’s each past life that merges into the current one.Not the other way around.It’s _he_ who has the final recollection of Ozma’s life, his hopes, his aspirations.

Who gets to mourn them.Mourn what could have been, yet what never was. 

Somewhere inside of him Oscar knows Salem doesn’t understand this.That, for all she tried to keep Ozma alive, he’s died a very gradual, very slow death anyway.And until she recognizes it and finally lets Ozma’s memory go, the cycle they’re in will keep continuing on through time.Never ending.

“He reincarnates younger because there’s less of a chance they’ll already have built a family,” Salem tells Oscar.“Loved ones who will die before his eyes because of him.”

Replacements for her, he knows she’s not saying out loud.In her twisted reality, the one she loved can’t love again or move on.She hasn’t, and she’d prefer to warp both the world and herself into an unrecognizable nightmare before she admits to that.

Oscar looks at Salem and says nothing.If she won’t choose to accept that her and Ozma’s story ended tragically (and partially by her own hand), he knows there’s probably nothing he can say to sway her mind.

Because he’s not Ozma.He’s Oscar.

And, to her, he doesn’t actually exist.


End file.
